Kentucky Teacher

Language arts teacher Christi Lefevers has a literary discussion with sophomores Kaite Mason, Taelor Lawson and Adam Jones at Bell County High School. Photo by Amy Wallot, April 18, 2013

By Susan Riddell
susan.riddell@education.ky.gov

Jennifer Yankey remembers the first vertical meeting of district middle and high school English/language arts (ELA) teachers being very quiet.

“I think we were all trying to figure out our purpose,” Yankey said. “But we’re not quiet anymore.”

Yankey, an English/language arts curriculum specialist for the Bell County school district, said this particular professional learning community (PLC) has helped teachers reinvigorate English/language arts classes within the district.

“Sometimes, we get stuck in our own world, in our own realm of teaching,” Yankey said. “Now, we’re sharing and growing together professionally.”

Maybe just as important, teachers are coming together to better understand the Kentucky Core Academic Standards; improve practices and leadership skills; and create a culture of unity across grade levels.

“This experience has opened a line of communication that did not exist before,” said Bell County High School teacher Christie Willis. Read the full story

First-grade student Callie Austin listens to curriculum coach Selena Cochran teach sentence structure during a writing lab at Porter Elementary School (Johnson County). Photo by Amy Wallot, Nov. 16, 2012

By Susan Riddell
susan.riddell@education.ky.gov

Sandra Music couldn’t bring herself to eat the blue mashed potatoes.

Even though her Porter Elementary School (Johnson County) students told her they tasted just like regular mashed potatoes, Music took a pass on the lunch item last fall. “That whole week the kids’ mouths were blue,” she joked. “One day it was mashed potatoes, another day it was blue suckers. They had something blue to eat every day.”

The school went blue to celebrate its recognition as a 2012 National Blue Ribbon School.

Blue tongues aside, Music said it was worth it because it helped the students realize the significance of the Blue Ribbon accomplishment they helped earn.

“By the end of the week, they got what the excitement was all about,” said Music, who has been principal at the school for four years. “The entire Paintsville community was behind us. We were recognized at the board meeting, there was a proclamation, and the students really got that they were doing great things at this school.” Read the full story

StageLab’s Elements of Drama professional development will be July 24 in Louisville.

This PD session focuses on the Elements of Drama and how they connect to the English and language arts Common Core. This session will be centered on the literary elements and ways in which these can be studied in context with the Common Core. Performance elements will be addressed in terms of the speaking and reading criteria. Technical elements and connections to social studies also will be covered.

StageLab’s Professional Development sessions offer both novice teachers of drama and experienced teachers new skills, techniques and activities to enhance students’ study of and connection to drama.

StageLab’s hands-on, participatory approach to teaching drama complements the school level review of arts programming implemented this school year, and aims to provide teachers with the skills to attain distinguished level in the rubric for their school review.

For more information, contact (502) 741-8392 or stagelab@insightbb.com.

By Susan Riddell
susan.riddell@education.ky.gov

Fifth-grade student Parrie Kay Reed talks about her vocabulary term "border states" while her classmates listen during Karen Schulz's 5th-grade class at the Kentucky School for the Deaf. They were learning about the Civil War. Photo by Amy Wallot, April 17, 2012

Cathy White is formerly a Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) specialist for students with special needs and an expert in issues related to deafness.

As the mother of a deaf child who doesn’t use his voice to communicate, White was recently looking over a list of the speaking and listening standards included in the Kentucky Core Academic Standards (see box).

Each time she read one off, she had the same reply: “There’s no reason a deaf or blind student can’t do this.”

Click here to read a recent Kentucky Teacher article about the speaking and listening standards.

That’s the message echoed by many stakeholders at KDE and Kentucky School for the Deaf (KSD) and Kentucky School for the Blind (KSB).

“The speaking and listening standards are about communication, and students who don’t use their voices to communicate have multiple ways to communicate nonetheless,” said White, branch manager of Teacher and Leader Effectiveness in the Office of Next-Generation Learners. Read the full story

Alesia Williams, an English and humanities teacher at duPont Manual High School (Jefferson County), is the most recent recipient of the WHAS11-TV Excellence in Classroom and Educational Leadership (ExCEL) Award.

Williams “places an emphasis on academic rigor while giving her students as close to a college experience as possible,” said Principal Larry Wooldridge. “Ms. Williams is truly a teacher who cares about her students and strives to provide instruction that is both challenging and fun.”

Williams holds a bachelor’s degree from Berea College and a Master of Arts in Teaching from Spalding University. She also spent two years in graduate studies at the University of Cincinnati School of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning.

She taught at Liberty High beginning in 2001 and then joined the staff at Manual in 2004. She earned certification from the Western Kentucky University Center for Gifted Studies to teach Advanced Placement (AP) English Language and

Composition. Her students consistently earn high scores on AP tests. She also teaches Advanced History and Appreciation of the Visual and Performing Arts.

Williams has served as a writing cluster coordinator and as a teacher representative on the School-Based Decision Making (SBDM) Council. She also is co-sponsor of the Manual Student-Teacher Book Club. Read the full story

The March 2012 issue of the Kentucky Literacy Link is now posted on the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) website.

This issue focuses on writing. One of the KDE’s goals is to reach across the curriculum and involve all content areas in the implementation of English and language arts standards. This issue of the Literacy Link, and all previous issues, can be accessed here.

To make submissions to the literacy link newsletter, contact MK Hardaway at (502) 564-2106, ext. 4513.

By Susan Riddell
Susan.riddell@education.ky.gov

Sophomore Tiara Brand, right, gives a humorous and informative speech about freshman Mason Stamm, left, for her first speech of the year during Steve Meadows Speech 1 class at Danville High School (Danville Ind.). Photo by Amy Wallot, Aug. 16, 2011

For Steve Meadows, an English teacher at Danville High School (Danville Independent), the emphasis on speaking and listening standards in the Kentucky Core Academic Standards makes perfect sense.

“For me personally, it’s an exciting shift in emphasis to include what I’ve always loved best – speech and speaking – as part of the general curriculum,” said Meadows, who has been an educator for more than 20 years. “I’m a great believer that our job in language arts is to empower students to be able to communicate clearly for the rest of their lives.

“Students will communicate more through speaking and listening in real life than they will through reading and writing, so including the full range of literacy in the standards and in our coursework makes sense to me.”

Meadows coaches the Danville High forensics/speech team that won the 2011 Kentucky Educational Speech and Drama Association (KESDA) state title.  Read the full story

By Matthew Tungate
matthew.tungate@education.ky.gov

Anchorage Public Elementary School (Anchorage Ind.) pricipal Keith Waford speaks with other members from his district about using data to improve teaching and learning during the OVEC Instructional Leadership Network meeting in Oldham County. At left is director of special education Kristy Clark. Photo by Amy Wallot, Sept. 15, 2011

As teachers implement the new Kentucky Core Academic Standards in English/language arts and mathematics this year, the group of educators that broke down those standards into easy-to-understand learning targets is working on the best way to teach to those targets.

Kentucky’s Leadership Networks are made up of regional professional learning communities composed of teacher, school and district leaders from the state’s 174 districts. The cohorts are facilitated by Kentucky Department of Education content specialists, regional educational co-operative consultants and faculty members from higher education. Some facilitation teams also have district partners and other consultants. Read the full story

Robyn Oatley, project manager for ReadyKentucky, speaks about Kentucky’s Common Core State Standards at the League of Women Voters meeting in Louisville. Photo by Amy Wallot, Aug. 30, 2011

By Susan Riddell
Susan.riddell@education.ky.gov

Kentucky teachers are working hard on implementing the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in English/language arts and mathematics this school year to better prepare students for college and/or career.

And it’s critical that teachers partner with parents in the process, stakeholders say.

Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) Associate Commissioner Felicia Cumings Smith said that partnership begins with teachers educating parents. Read the full story